ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY – WHAT TO INCLUDE

(Note: Writer = author)

REFERENCE

 Citation of Source/ Publication details APA format

(*Based on the APA format)

 In-text citations - minimum of 4 Two ways to do this:

citations)
 There are …. (Smith, 2000)
 According to Smith (2000), there are …

INTRODUCTION

Overview/Objective of the article 1. This magazine / journal / newspaper,

etc. article (1) written by McDougall (2)
To persuade/to inform/etc deals with (overview)…(3)
2. The objective(4)of the article is to
Type of Article inform readers/to persuade the general
public to …/about …)
Magazine article/journal article/etc.

CONTENT Paraphrase and summarise

Students are expected to paraphrase main

ideas (5 ideas with supporting details)

CRITICAL RESPONSE (choose any 5) (e.g. general public/parents/college

students, etc.)
 target readership: the general public
 The article is written for the general
 public / investors / parents / etc. as the
subject matter is applicable to them.
 The target audience of this article is
the general public / school principals /
etc.

 logical organisation of the article (e.g. whether logical)

First layer

 This article is organised in a

chronological order…
 This article is organised according to a
cause-and-effect pattern.
 The writer uses a problem-solution
structure to organise this article…

2nd layer

 …and points/arguments are presented

well because relevant facts and
adequate examples are given.
 …but points/arguments are not
presented well because no examples
are given to support certain points.

 reasoning (e.g. objective/biased because the author

provides adequate / inadequate support)

 This makes the article objective

because the writer has explored the
issue from the perspective of … / has
explored both the pros and cons of …
 This makes the article biased because
the author has not provided any
counter-arguments …
 The article is biased because the
author has not explored the possibility
of …

 author’s tone: neutral / matter-of-fact (e.g. matter-of-fact/

neutral/angry/critical/optimistic/serious etc.)

 The overall tone of this article is

serious as the topic is one which …
 The writer appears to have employed
an optimistic tone in this article
because…

 author’s use of language (e.g. technical/reader-friendly /clear /

ambiguous, free of jargon etc.)

 This article is reader-friendly because

 the language used is simple and easy
to understand.
 This article appears to be very
technical as the writer uses technical
jargon in certain parts…

 usefulness of the article (e.g. provides an/new insight(s) into the

issue / does not provide any insights into
the problem of ... etc.)

 This article is useful as it provides clear

insights into the issue of …
 This article is not very useful the writer
has not provided any new information
which the target audience may not
already know.

 author’s use of other resources (e.g. whether sources used are

current/below 10 years)

 The writer uses various sources to

support the points made in the article.
These sources are up-to-date/current
as they were all published within the
past ten years.
 The writer supports the points made in
the article by using sources which are
rather old/out-dated…

 strength/weakness of the article (e.g. the author provides a variety of strong

support such as research findings, expert
testimonies or expert opinions etc.)

 This article is convincing because the

writer has provided strong support in
the form of current research findings /
expert opinions / statistical data /
expert testimonies / etc.

(e.g. the author provides only his personal

opinion and does not provide external
support for his argument etc.)

 This article is not convincing as the

writer only provides his own opinions
and does not furnish any external
support for his arguments.

 suggestion to improve the article (varies)